The Significance of the Number Six and One Hundred Twenty

Since therefore many men, having been born, were full of weakness, he says, 'My Spirit shall not abide in them.' For 'a holy spirit of discipline will flee from guile' (Ps 51:13); but guile is a more grievous passion, for it harms thoughtlessly. And 'unto the age' (Gen 6:3) signifies how such they are throughout their life. This is equivalent to 'I will not eat meat unto the age' (Ex 11:5). Whether therefore men are being driven by demons having taken daughters, or, as is previously rendered, the angels of desirable sensations, the Spirit does not remain in these. For whoever has come to this through passions and sins, it is evident that they have no part of the divine Spirit; for even those who have come for the help of the divine Spirit are deprived.

If anyone should be surprised at the saying that angels are souls, he ought not to marvel; for the spiritual is the same for both, even if an angel has a subtle body and the man a thick one; for to please God is common to both, since it is also common to the rational nature. And if anyone brings an objection as to how the pre-existing souls desired bodies, of which they did not know, it must be said to whom that desiring is often said not strictly as desiring that toward which their actions lead. Often indeed, also rebuking those living not well, saying, 'you desire to perish' (Matt 27:5), we do not say that 'you desire this very thing' (Acts 22:4), but 'you do such things which lead you to destruction' (Gal 6:7). If therefore anyone says that the souls desired bodies, it must be understood thus: that they were in such a state that they had need of the intercourse in the body, their being unworthy to be in a place not like this, after such actions.

Yes, 'and their days shall be a hundred and twenty years' (Gen 15:16). Everything that God does and says, He does and says by a true judgment. Since therefore 'their days shall be a hundred and twenty' is said as a necessity, but this does not appear to be so, it is necessary to interpret the intention of the thing foretold differently. The numbers received in the Scriptures were not received haphazardly, but for the sake of a certain word; often they are not even introduced naturally to the history, being received for the sake of a certain word. For to say, 'I left with myself seven thousand men, who did not do...' (1 Kings 19:18).

Because the history of bowing the knee to Baal is not possessed—for the holy one did not know so much—he was troubled for the sake of showing the thought, that everyone who surpasses the sensible and the world having been made in six days, having been brought forth in the restorative seventh week, is left by God as a goal for others and a benefit.

Thus also the number six was taken in the generation of this world as perfect, just as it has been said in the passages. And 'six times he is delivered from necessities' is not said because of the number or because of being delivered from necessities so many times, but rather, as long as one is in the things of the one having been made in six, he is under necessities, thus it is said; of the cessation, which is shown through the seventh, they do not have purification, as it was said to the disciples by the Savior: 'You are not of this world' (John 15:19) having surpassed the necessities in it.

These things were prepared beforehand to show that the number one hundred twenty is not in vain taken here; and it is necessary also to note this, that the scripture, taking the numbers, connects them with their own properties as of the world having been made in six days (Genesis 1). Let us take an example. For it is not possible to say that God made the world in six angels or in six monads or in six men; for time was being shown. Therefore, being offered in six days, it is said because time falls to the generation, being appropriately synchronized with the day, so as not to be years or months or hours; for the former is worthy of God, but the latter is the name of the incomplete; for not knowing what a day is, we are ignorant of the hour. And there, since it was concerning life, he mentioned years.

And... the many will say that God, as cutting off their life, established it at one hundred twenty, with the former living many years; but this was not fitting; for they seem to have lived more years. Let us therefore see the characteristic of the number. It is said therefore that this number, having been composed of its own parts, is doubled; for if the half is composed, which is sixty, the third is missing, the fourth is missing, the fifth is twenty-four, the sixth is twenty, the eighth is eighty-five, the tenth is missing, the twelfth is missing, the fifteenth is eight, the twentieth is missing, the twenty-fourth is five, the thirtieth is four...